for himself, who purchases so poor a pleasure at so high a price!

"We had lived near three weeks with as much freedom as if we had been all of the same family, when one afternoon my lord proposed to my husband to ride down himself to solicit the surrender; for he said the bishop had received an unsatisfactory answer from the parson, and had writ a second letter more pressing, which his lordship now promised us to strengthen by one of his own that my husband was to carry with him. Mr Bennet agreed to this proposal with great thankfulness, and the next day was appointed for his journey. The distance was near seventy miles.

My husband set out on his journey, and he had scarce left me before Mrs Ellison came into my room, and endeavoured to comfort me in his absence; to say the truth, though he was to be from me but a few days, and the purpose of his going was to fix our happiness on a sound foundation for all our future days, I could scarce support my spirits under this first separation. But though I then thought Mrs Ellison's intentions to be most kind and friendly, yet the means she used were utterly ineffectual, and appeared to me injudicious. Instead of soothing my uneasiness, which is always the first physic to be given to grief, she rallied me upon it, and began to talk in a very unusual style of gaiety, in which she treated conjugal love with much ridicule.

I gave her to understand that she displeased me by this discourse; but she soon found means to give such a turn to it, as made a merit of all that she had said. And now, when she had worked me into a good humour, she made a proposal to me, which I at first rejected, but at last fatally-too fatally suffered myself to be over-persuaded. This was to go to a masquer ade at Ranelagh, for which my lord had furnished her with tickets."

At these words Amelia turned pale as death, and hastily begged her friend to give her a glass of water, some air, or any thing. Mrs Bennet having thrown open the window, and procured the water, which prevented Amelia from fainting, looked at her with much tenderness, and cried, "I do not wonder, my dear madam, that you are affected with my mentioning that fatal masquerade, since I firmly believe the same ruin was intended for you at the same place. The apprehension of which occasioned the letter I sent you this morning, and all the trial of your patience which I have made since,"

Amelia gave her a tender embrace, with many expressions of the warmest gratitude; assured her she had pretty well recovered her spirits, and begged her to continue her story; which Mrs Bennet then did. However, as our readers may likewise be glad to recover their spirits also, we shall here put an end to this chapter.

CHAP. VII.

The Story farther continued.

MRS BENNETT proceeded thus:

"I was at length prevailed on to accompany Mrs Ellison to the masquerade. Here, I must confess, the pleasantness of the place, the variety of the dresses, and the novelty of the thing, gave me much delight, and raised my fancy to the highest pitch. As I was entirely void of all suspicion, my mind threw off all reserve, and pleasure only filled my thoughts. Innocence, it is true, possessed my heart, but it was innocence unguarded, intoxicated with foolish desires, and liable to every temptation. During the first two hours we had many trifling adventures not worth remembering. At length my lord joined us, and continued with me all the evening, and we danced several dances together.

"I need not, I believe, tell you, madam, how engaging his conversation is. I wish I could with truth say, I was not pleased with it; or, at least, that I had a right to be pleased with it. But I will disguise nothing from you: I now began to discover that he had some affection for me; but he had already too firm a footing in my esteem to make the discovery shocking. I will -I will own the truth; I was delighted with perceiving a passion in him, which I was not unwilling to think he had had from the beginning, and to derive his having concealed it so long from his awe of my virtue, and his respect to my understanding. I assure you, madam, at the same time, my intentions were, never to exceed the bounds of innocence. I was charmed with the delicacy of his passion, and in the foolish, thoughtless turn of mind in which I then was, I fancied I might give some very distant encouragement to such a passion in such a man with the utmost safety; that I might indulge my vanity and interest at once, without being guilty of the least injury.

"I know Mrs Booth will condemn all these thoughts, and I condemn them no less myself; for it is now my stedfast opinion, that the woman who gives up the least outwork of her virtue, doth in that very moment betray the citadel.

"About two o'clock we returned home, and found a very handsome collation provided for us. I was asked to partake of it, and I did not, I could not refuse. I was not, however, entirely void of all suspicion, and I made many resolutions, one of which was, not to drink a drop more than my usual stint. This was, at the utmost, little more than half a pint of small punch.

"I adhered strictly to my quantity, but in the quality I am convinced I was deceived; fo before I left the room, I found my head giddy.

What the villain gave me I know not; but, besides being intoxicated, I perceived effects from it which are not to be described.

"Here, madam, I must draw a curtain over the residue of that fatal night. Let it suffice that it involved me in the most dreadful ruin ; a ruin, to which, I can truly say, I never consented, and of which I was scarce conscious when the villainous man avowed it to my face in the morning.

"Thus I have deduced my story to the most horrid period; happy had I been bad this been the period of my life; but I was reserved for greater miseries. But before I enter on them, I will mention something very remarkable, with which I was now acquainted, and that will shew there was nothing of accident which had befallen me, but that all was the effect of a long, regular, premeditated design.

"You may remember, madam, I told you, that we were recommended to Mrs Ellison by the woman at whose house we had before lodged. This woman, it seems, was one of my lord's pimps, and had before introduced me to his lordship's notice.

"You are to know then, madam, that this villain, this lord, now confessed to me, that he had first seen me in the gallery at the oratorio, whither I had gone with tickets, with which the woman where I first lodged had presented me, and which were, it seems, purchased by my lord. Here I first met the vile betrayer, who was disguised in a rug-coat, and a patch upon his face."

At these words Amelia cried, "O gracious Heavens!" and fell back in her chair. Mrs Bennet, with proper applications, brought her back to life; and then Amelia acquainted her, that she herself had first seen the same person, in the same place, and in the saine disguise. "O! Mrs Bennet," cried she, "how am I indebted to you! What words, what thanks, what actions can demonstrate the gratitude of my sentiments! I look upon you, and always shall look upon you, as my preserver from the brink of a precipice, from which I was falling into the same ruin, which you have so generously, so kindly, and so nobly disclosed for my sake.'

Here the two ladies compared notes; and it appeared that his lordship's behaviour at the oratorio had been alike to both; that he had made use of the very same words, the very same actions, to Amelia, which he had practised over before on poor unfortunate Mrs Bennet. It may, perhaps, be thought strange, that neither of them afterwards could recollect him; but so it was. And, indeed, if we consider the force of disguise, the very short time that either of them was with him at this first interview, and the very little curiosity that must have been supposed in the minds of the ladies, together with the amusement in which they were then engaged, all wonder will, I apprehend, cease.

Amelia, however, now declared, she remembered his voice and features perfectly well, and was thoroughly satisfied he was the same person. She then accounted for his not having visited in the afternoon, according to his promise, from her declared resolutions to Mrs Ellison not to see him. She now burst forth into some very satirical invectives against that lady, and declared, she had the art, as well as the wickedness, of the devil himself.

Many congratulations now passed from Mrs Bennet to Amelia, which were returned with the most hearty acknowledgments from that lady. But instead of filling our paper with these, we shall pursue Mrs Bennet's story, which she resumed, as we shall find in the next chapter.

66

CHAP. VIII.

Farther continuation.

"No sooner," said Mrs Bennet, continuing her story, was my lord departed, than Mrs Ellison came to me. She behaved in such a manner, when she became acquainted with what had passed, that though I was at first satisfied of her guilt, she began to stagger my opinion; and, at length, prevailed upon me entirely to acquit her. She raved like a madwoman against my lord, swore he should not stay a moment in her house, and that she would never speak to him more. In short, had she been the most innocent woman in the world, she could not have spoke nor acted any otherwise; nor could she have vented more wrath and indignation against the betrayer.

"That part of her denunciation of vengeance, which concerned my lord's leaving the house, she vowed should be executed immediately; but then, seeming to recollect herself, she said, 'Consider, my dear child, it is for your sake alone I speak; will not such a proceeding give some sus picion to your husband?'-I answered, that I valued not that; that I was resolved to inform my husband of all, the moment I saw him; with many expressions of detestation of myself, and an indifference for life, and for every thing else.

"Mrs Ellison, however, found means to sooth me, and to satisfy me with my own innocence; a point in which, I believe, we are all easily convinced. In short, I was persuaded to acquit both myself and her, to lay the whole guilt upon my lord, and to resolve to conceal it from my husband.

"That whole day I confined myself to my chamber, and saw no person but Mrs Ellison. I was, indeed, ashamed to look any one in the face. Happily for me, my lord went into the country, without attempting to come near me; for I believe his sight would have driven me to madness.

"The next day I told Mrs Ellison, that I was

resolved to leave her lodgings the moment my lord came to town; not on her account, (for I really inclined to think her innocent,) but on my lord's, whose face I was resolved, if possible, never more to behold. She told me, I had no reason to quit her house on that score; for that my lord himself had left her lodgings that morning, in resentment, she believed, of the abuses which she had cast on him the day before.

"This confirmed me in the opinion of her innocence; nor hath she from that day to this, till my acquaintance with you, madam, done any thing to forfeit my opinion. On the contrary, I owe her many good offices; among the rest, I have an annuity of one hundred and fifty pounds a-year from my lord, which I know was owing to her solicitations; for she is not void of generosity or good-nature; though, by what I have lately seen, I am convinced she was the cause of my ruin, and hath endeavoured to lay the same snares for you.

"But to return to my melancholy story. My husband returned at the appointed time; and I met him with an agitation of mind not to be described. Perhaps the fatigue which he had undergone in his journey, and his dissatisfaction at his ill success, prevented his taking notice of what I feared was too visible. All his hopes were entirely frustrated; the clergyman had not received the bishop's letter; and as to my lord's, he treated it with derision and contempt. Tired as he was, Mr Bennet would not sit down till he had inquired for my lord, intending to go and pay his compliments. Poor man! he little suspected that he had deceived him, as I have since known, concerning the bishop; much less did he suspect any other injury. But the lord—the villain was gone out of town, so that he was forced to postpone all his gratitude.

"Mr Bennet returned to town late on the Saturday night; nevertheless he performed his duty at church next day; but I refused to go with him. This, I think, was the first refusal I was guilty of since our marriage; but I was become so miserable, that his presence, which had been the source of all my happiness, was become my bane. I will not say I hated to see him; but I can say I was ashamed, indeed afraid, to look him in the face. I was conscious of I knew not what-Guilt, I hope, it cannot be called."

"I hope not, nay, I think not," cries Amelia. "My husband," continued Mrs Bennet, "perceived my dissatisfaction, and imputed it to his ill success in the country. I was pleased with this self-delusion; and yet, when I fairly compute the agonies I suffered at his endeavours to comfort me on that head, I paid most severely for it. O, my dear Mrs Booth, happy is the deceived party between true lovers, and wretched indeed is the author of the deceit !

"In this wretched condition I past a whole week, the most miserable, I think, of my whole life, endeavouring to humour my husband's delusion, and to conceal my own tortures; but I had reason to fear I could not succeed long; for on the Saturday night I perceived a visible alteration in his behaviour to me. He went to bed in an apparent ill humour, turned sullenly from me; and if I offered at any endearments, he gave me only peevish answers.

"After a restless turbulent night, he rose early on Sunday morning, and walked down stairs. I expected his return to breakfast, but was soon informed by the maid that he was gone forth; and that it was no more than seven o'clock. All this, you may believe, madam, alarmed me. I saw plainly he had discovered the fatal secret, though by what means I could not divine. The state of my mind was very little short of madness. Sometimes I thought of running away from my injured husband, and sometimes of putting an end to my life.

"In the midst of such perturbations, I spent the day. My husband returned in the evening. O Heavens! can I describe what followed ?-It is impossible, I shall sink under the relation.— He entered the room, with a face as white as a sheet, his lips trembling, and his eyes red as coals of fire, and starting, as it were, from his head. Molly,' cries he, throwing himself into his chair, are you well?'-' Good Hea vens!' says I, what's the matter?—Indeed, I cannot say I am well.'-' No!' says he, starting from his chair; false monster, you have betrayed me, destroyed me, you have ruined your hushand.'-Then looking like a fury, he snatched off a large book from the table, and, with the malice of a madman, threw it at my head, and knocked me down backwards. He then caught me up in his arms, and kissed me with most extravagant tenderness; then looking me stedfastly in the face for several moments, the tears gushed in a torrent from his eyes, and with his utmost violence he threw me again on the floor-kicked me, stamped upon me. I believe, indeed, his intent was to kill me, and I believe he thought he had accomplished it.

"I lay on the ground for some minutes, I believe, deprived of my senses. When I recovered myself, I found my husband lying by my side on his face, and the blood running from him. It seems when he thought he had dispatched me, he ran his head with all his force against a chest of drawers which stood in the room, and gave himself a dreadful wound in his head.

"I can truly say, I felt not the least resentment for the usage I had received; I thought I deserved it all; though, indeed, I little guessed what he had suffered from me. I now used the most earnest entreaties to him to compose himself; and endeavoured with my feeble arms to raise him from the ground. At length, he broke

from me, and, springing from the ground, flung himself into a chair, when, looking wildly at me, he cried, 'Go from me, Molly. I beseech you leave me; I would not kill you.'-He then discovered to me-O Mrs Booth, can you not guess it?-I was indeed polluted by the villain; I had infected my husband. O Heavens! why do I live to relate any thing so horrid? I will not, I cannot yet survive it. I cannot forgive myself. Heaven cannot forgive me.' Here she became inarticulate with the violence of her grief, and fell presently into such agonies, that the frighted Amelia began to call aloud for some assistance. Upon this, a maidservant came up, who, seeing her mistress in a violent convulsion-fit, presently screamed out she was dead. Upon which one of the other sex made his appearance; and who should this be but the honest serjeant? whose countenance soon made it evident, that though a soldier, and a brave one too, he was not the least concerned of all the company on this occasion.

The reader, if he hath been acquainted with scenes of this kind, very well knows that Mrs Bennet, in the usual time, returned again to the possession of her voice; the first use of which she made, was to express her astonishment at the presence of the serjeant, and, with a frantic air, to inquire who he was.

The maid, concluding that her mistress was not yet returned to her senses, answered, "Why, 'tis my master, madam. Heaven preserve your senses, madam.-Lord, sir, my mistress must be very bad not to know you.'

What Atkinson thought at this instant, I will not say; but certain it is, he looked not over wise. He attempted twice to take hold of Mrs Bennet's hand; but she withdrew it hastily, and presently after rising up from her chair, she declared herself pretty well again, and desired Atkinson and the maid to withdraw. Both of whom presently obeyed; the serjeant appearing by his countenance to want comfort almost as much as the lady did, to whose assistance he had been summoned.

It is a good maxim to trust a person entirely, or not at all; for a secret is often innocently blabbed out by those who know but half of it. Certain it is, that the maid's speech communicated a suspicion to the mind of Amelia, which the behaviour of the serjeant did not tend to remove; what that is, the sagacious readers may likewise, probably, suggest to themselves; if not, they must wait our time for disclosing it. We shall now resume the history of Mrs Bennet, who, after many apologies, proceeded to the matters in the next chapter.

CHAP. IX.

The conclusion of Mrs Bennet's History.

"WHEN I became sensible," cries Mrs Bennet, " of the injury I had done my husband, I threw myself at his feet; and embracing his knees, while I bathed them with my tears, I begged a patient hearing, declaring, if he was not satisfied with what I should say, I would become a willing victim of his resentment. I said, and I said truly, that if I owed my death that instant to his hands, I should have no other terror, but that of the fatal consequence which it might produce to himself.

"He seemed a little pacified, and bid me say whatever I pleased.

"I then gave him a faithful relation of all that had happened. He heard me with great attention, and, at the conclusion, cried, with a deep sigh, O, Molly, I believe it all.-You must have been betrayed, as you tell me ; you could not be guilty of such baseness, such cruelty, such ingratitude.'-He then-O it is impossible to describe his behaviour-he expressed such kindness, such tenderness, such concern for the manner in which he had used me.-I cannot dwell on this scene-I shall relapse.You must excuse me."

Amelia begged her to omit any thing which so affected her; and she proceeded thus :

My husband, who was more convinced than I was of Mrs Ellison's guilt, declared he would not sleep that night in her house. He then went out to see for a lodging; he gave me all the money he had, and left me to pay her bill, and put up the clothes, telling me, if I had not money enough, I might leave the clothes as a pledge; but he vowed he could not answer for himself, if he saw the face of Mrs Ellison.

"Words can scarce express the behaviour of that artful woman, it was so kind and so generous. She said she did not blame my husband's resentment; nor could she expect any other, but that he and all the world should censure her ; that she hated her house almost as much as we did, and detested her cousin, if possible, more. In fine, she said, that I might leave my clothes there that evening; but that she would send them to us the next morning; that she scorned the thought of detaining them; and as for the paltry debt, we might pay her whenever we pleased; for to do her justice, with all her vices, she hath some good in her."

"Some good in her, indeed!" cried Amelia, with great indignation.

"We were scarce settled in our new lodgings," continued Mrs Bennet, "when my husband began to complain of a pain in his inside. He told me he feared he had done himself some injury

in his rage, and had burst something within him. As to the odious-I cannot bear the thought-the great skill of his surgeon soon entirely cured him; but his other complaint, instead of yielding to any application, grew still worse and worse, nor ever ended till it brought him to his grave.

"O Mrs Booth, could I have been certain that I had occasioned this, however innocently I had occasioned it, I could never have survived it; but the surgeon, who opened him after his death, assured me, that he died of what they called a polypus in his heart, and that nothing which had happened on account of me was in the least the occasion of it.

"I have, however, related the affair truly to you. The first complaint I ever heard of the kind, was within a day or two after we left Mrs Ellison's; and this complaint remained till his death, which might induce him, perhaps, to attribute his death to another cause; but the surgeon, who is a man of the highest eminence, hath always declared the contrary to me, with the most positive certainty; and this opinion hath been my only comfort.

"When my husband died, which was about ten weeks after we quitted Mrs Ellison's, of whom I had then a different opinion from what I have now, I was left in the most wretched condition imaginable. I believe, madam, she shewed you my letter. Indeed, she did every thing for me at that time, which I could have expected from the best of friends. She supplied me with money from her own pocket, by which means I was preserved from a distress, in which I must otherwise inevitably have perished.

"Her kindness to me, in this season of distress, prevailed on me to return again to her house. Why, indeed, should I have refused an offer so very convenient for me to accept, and which seemed so generous in her to make? Here I lived a very retired life, with my little babe, seeing no company but Mrs Ellison herself, for a full quarter of a year. At last Mrs Ellison brought me a parchment from my lord, in which he had settled upon me, at her instance, as she told me, and as I believe it was, an annuity of one hundred and fifty pounds ayear. This was, I think, the very first time she had mentioned his hateful name to me since my return to her house. And she now prevailed upon me, though, I assure you, not without much difficulty, to suffer him to execute the deed in my presence.

"I will not describe our interview; I am not able to describe it, and I have often wondered how I found spirits to support it. This I will say for him, that, if he was not a real penitent, no man alive could act the part better.

"Beside resentment, I had another motive of my backwardness to agree to such a meeting; and that was fear. I apprehended, and surely

not without reason, that the annuity was rather meant as a bribe than a recompence, and that further designs were laid against my innocence. But in this I found myself happily deceived; for neither then, nor at any time since, have Í ever had the least solicitation of that kind. Nor, indeed, have I seen the least occasion to think my lord had any such desires.

"Good Heavens! what are these men! what is this appetite, which must have novelty and resistance for its provocatives; and which is de-lighted with us no longer than while we may be considered in the light of enemies!"

"I thank you, madam," cries Amelia, "for relieving me from my fears on your account; I trembled at the consequence of this second acquaintance with such a man, and in such a situation."

"I assure you, madam, I was in no danger," returned Mrs Bennet; "for besides that I think I could have pretty well relied on my own resolution, I have heard since, at St Edmundsbury, from an intimate acquaintance of my lord's, who was an entire stranger to my affairs, that the highest degree of inconstancy is his character; and that few of his numberless mistresses have ever received a second visit from him.

“Well, madam," continued she, “ I think I have little more to trouble you with; unless I should relate to you my long ill state of health, from which I am lately, I thank Heaven, recovered; or, unless I should mention to you the most grievous accident that ever befel me, the loss of my poor dear Charley."-Here she made a full stop, and the tears ran down into her bosom.

Amelia was silent a few minutes, while she gave the lady time to vent her passion; after which, she began to pour forth a vast profusion of acknowledgments for the trouble she had taken in relating her history; but chiefly for the motive which had induced her to it; and for the kind warning which she had given her by the little note which Mrs Bennet had sent her that morning.

"Yes, madam," cries Mrs Bennet, "I am convinced, by what I have lately seen, that you are the destined sacrifice to this wicked lord; and that Mrs Ellison, whom I no longer doubt to have been the instrument of my ruin, intended to betray you in the same manner. The day I met my lord in your apartment, I began to entertain some suspicions, and I took Mrs Ellison very roundly to task upon them; her behaviour, notwithstanding many asseverations to the contrary, convinced me I was right; and I intended, more than once, to speak to you, but could not; till last night the mention of the masquerade determined me to delay it no longer. I therefore sent you that note this morning; and am glad you so luckily discovered the writer, as it hath given me this opportunity of easing